Pretenderis, Giannis

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Ta Nea - Greece | 25/10/2010

Papandreaou overdramatises local elections

In view of the ongoing protests in Greece against the government's austerity policy, Prime Minister George Papandreou no longer excludes the possibility of holding early elections. He has announced he considers the results of his party Pasok in the nationwide regional polls on November 7 a litmus test. Giannis Pretenderis of the left-liberal daily Ta Nea fails to see the importance of the local elections: "What should Sarkozy have done when he lost all of the French regional elections this spring? ... Brought out the tanks? ... I simply don't understand. What interest can the government have in making a drama out of an election campaign which in itself is not particularly dramatic? All the more so as it can only be expected that all manner of tensions, objections, complaints and dissatisfaction will come to the fore in these elections? It cannot possibly be expected that Greek society will remain silent, considering all it has had to put up with. But unfortunately the airheads in power ... are determined to transform these local elections into the 'mother of all battles'. ... They fear they could be made the scapegoats of a defeat. And instead of being vanquished alone, they prefer we all go down together."

Greece choked by rescue measures

The left-liberal daily Ta Nea paints a sombre picture of Greece's prospects for economic development: "The news we've been getting until now has been anything but good. The recession worsened in the first quarter to minus 2.3 percent. That means hard times lie ahead, and growth will remain below minus five percent in the course of the year. This is the fifth quarter in a row in which negative growth has been recorded. Inflation has risen to 4.8 percent, without counting the rise of VAT from 21 to 23 percent. Can we still hope for an annual inflation rate under six percent? Hardly. Unemployment will rise from 12 to 15 percent in the coming months. ... Our country is suffocating, because the rescue measures determined by our economic policy could plunge it even deeper into the abyss. ... Our country is choking because it has no prospects for development."